Exactly one year ago today, an angel was born. Actually EIGHT angels were born to a doggy daddy named Duke and a doggy mommy named Mia. Three of these angels were just a little different than the rest as they were born with cleft palates. Rather than have the three extra special babies put down, Jack Ferron and Mushie Viereckl found a group of people who have dedicated their lives to assisting puppies born with cleft palates! This group - known as The Mia Foundation - works tirelessly to save cleft babies rather than having them euthanized. And werent our three angels lucky? The Mia Foundations leader, Mama Sue Rogers was willing to accept Marvin, Misty, AND Melvin into the Mia Foundation! Within days, Stephanie Jaramillo was tube feeding the three babies around the clock and driving them on the first part of their journey to New York. It was then that the precious cargo was handed off to Barbara Gluth who drove the second leg of their journey while her grandson cradled all three in a shoe box the entire time! A few hundred miles more and the angels were passed along to Bonnie Sasse and/or Elizabeth- Tizza Baptiste?? who drove them them the final leg of the journey to The Mia Foundation in Rochester, New York. During the next three months, several foster homes stepped up to care for the babies until they were ready for adoption. Marvin in particular had a lovely time with his slumber parties at the houses of Karla Weller-Barkley and Tracy Plunkett Glass / Tammy Plunkett Sugiyama although Miss Tracys fur baby Maverick was less than happy with the arrangement! During this time, Miss Karla happened to post an adoption update on Facebook regarding Marvin along with the most precious picture youve ever seen! Amidst yet another busy day at the office, Jennifer Earnhardt paused for a quick Facebook break and just happened to see the adoption update. But it was the picture that really captured her! It was as if the heavens opened and angels were singing! Jennifer had no doubts in her mind that Marvin was her son but she was curious as to why he was all the way in New York!!! After reading up on Marvins story, Jennifer continued to think about Marvin nonstop. She didnt see any way The Mia Foundation would pick HER to adopt one of THEIR special babies. By this time, Jennifer had made a few friends within the Mia Foundation so she took a few minutes to pour her heart out to Miss Nancy Ortiz Langenbahn and Miss Mae Bell. The next morning Jennifer signed on to Facebook and, unbeknownst to her, Miss Nancy had forwarded her message to all the decision makers within the Mia Foundation who had, in turn, emailed Jennifer about adopting Marvin!! The next week was a blur of vet visits and Miss Susan Missell Zukoski selling her soul in order to arrange flight arrangements for Marvin to get from New York to Oklahoma unaccompanied!! The big day had finally arrived!! After a joyous tearful first meeting with mommy on a deserted loading dock at the OKC airport, Jennifer drove Marvin to his new home in Tulsa, Oklahoma where he then met his auntie Meagann Necessary and her dog, Cousin Lily! Those first few months flew by: Marvin and mommy went to puppy kindergarten and passed, mommy and Marvin went to obedience 1 and failed, mommy and Marvin went to intermediate obedience before mommy finally said screw it all - Marvin should just be a dog! Marvin got to meet his Grandma Teresa Earnhardt and Grandpa Stan Earnhardt! In the meantime, Jennifer had been keeping in touch with the owner of Marvins sister Misty - Aaron Reckley. They just loved sharing stories about these two big clown babies and looked forward to meeting at The Mia Walk fundraiser in June 2014! Fast forward several months, a few cable wires, some paint chips off the house, several exorcist slime vomit sessions, and many different good bowls later and The Mia Walk had finally arrived! With our good friend Melody Pedersen as the co-pilot, we set out toward the place where Marvins chance at life originally started - Rochester, New York - home of The Mia Foundation! During that short fun-filled weekend we met all kinds of new friends! There was Kathleen Kavcic Koziel and her son from Chicago. Edward J Lorenz from Georgia. Shannon Vane who made the trip with Uncle Aaron. The list literally goes on and on! And wouldnt ya know....that little angel responsible for starting all this - Miss Mia - was working overtime that weekend while she looked down from the rainbow bridge. BESIDES making sure that the fundraiser went off without a hitch, she decided to play Ms. Matchmaker as well!! She allowed the owners of two of our original three angels in the beginning of this story to feel some feelings that neither one of them had experienced in a very long time. She shot cupids arrow right into the butts of Jennifer and Aaron and allowed them to enter into a new kind of relationship. I highly doubt that Jack and Rebecca had any idea just how many lives would be changed by their simple to decision to give the three cleft angels a chance at life. I hardly doubt Sue Rogers knew of the impact she would make by creating an organization to give these babies a second chance at life. So on this day - the one year anniversary of Marvin and Mistys birth - I just want to say thank- you. Thank you to every single person who has hand in a life changing event for both me and Marvins lives! Its been a wild 365 days and I look forward to many, many more!!
Posted on: Wed, 02 Jul 2014 23:10:57 +0000
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